Ask Me Anything

I have always been a big fan of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything threads, and then recently, I saw that Steve published an Ask Me Anything on his blog. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to decide to do one of these. But, here it is, and I hope you think it’s going…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 24, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

I have always been a big fan of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything threads, and then recently, I saw that Steve published an Ask Me Anything on his blog. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to decide to do one of these. But, here it is, and I hope you think it’s going to be as fun as I do!

Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:

  • Personal finance
  • Blogging
  • My life
  • Travel
  • RVing
  • Being location independent
  • Business
  • Making extra money
  • How much candy I eat on a daily basis
  • My favorite TV show
  • Questions about my dogs

And so on, and so on.

Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate or creepy. I’ll let you be the judge of what is creepy, I guess, haha!

All right, go for it, ask away!

 

P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.


Filed under:

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

Like this article?

Join the Conversation

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Brianna

    When marketing your affiliate marketing course, has Facebook Ads been efficient for you?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I haven’t directly promoted my affiliate marketing course on Facebook, but I’m sure it would help.

  2. An Tran

    When you first started blogging, I’m sure trying to figure it all out plus a day job was exhausting. What helped you get your blog together fast and how did you find inspiration on what to blog about after a long day of work and other chores?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I started my blog 100% as a hobby, so it wasn’t too exhausting because I was having fun with it 🙂

  3. Val

    What are 3 of the most beautiful places you’ve seen while traveling?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      That’s a hard question! I really loved sailing in the BVIs. I also love the PNW and Colorado and Utah 🙂

  4. Chris

    Have you ever promoted blog post through Facebook Ads, to earn income through affiliate marketing?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Yes, not much, though. It’s an area I need to work on.

  5. Jennifer Johnson

    Hi Michelle,
    I am most worried about paying for my kids to go to college. We have been doing 529 plans since they were born but it still won’t be even close to enough. I would like to start investing and being able to handle my own portfolio so I can do more aggressive things to make more money. But I never learned how to do it. Can you recommend where I can learn everything I need to know to confidently enter that world? We have IRAs (from roll out 401(k) accounts when we moved from private sector to public sector jobs with defined public retirement plans) but have a financial advisor handle them. I want to do it myself and make intelligent choices.
    Thank You,
    Jen

      1. Jennifer Johnson

        Hi Michelle,

        Thanks for that article. We are on the same page with that. I too paid for all of my undergrad and law school education myself. I want to help my kids with college but certainly have no intention of paying for everything. We are more than on track for retirement and only have our mortgage as debt.

        Back to my original post though, do you have a recommendation for learning how to invest?

        Thanks,
        Jen

        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          My favorite way of learning how to invest would be to find good investing forums, such as Bogleheads or MMM (of course, it all depends on your investing style).

          Here’s a great list of books on investing too – http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-best-books-for-beginning-investors-2016-8/#the-intelligent-investor-the-definitive-book-on-value-investing-1

  6. Scott

    Hi Michelle,

    First, thank you for all you add to my life by way of all your information, now down to the question everyone is dying to ask (but are afraid to):

    What are your top three Christmas movies?

    😉

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Christmas Vacation! And Home Alone, and then I love a bunch of others too 🙂

  7. Laura

    Hey Michelle!
    Fantastic idea to get an AMA going 🙂
    I’ve enjoyed following along with your journey for a long time and I’d love to know some of your favorite hiking/outdoorsy spots in CO. I’m moving to Boulder in less than a month and am seriously SO excited to explore all the great trails!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Yes, I’ll have to do an AMA more often! I’m thinking once a quarter. 🙂

      My favorite outdoorsy activity in Colorado is to climb mountains, as well as rock climbing, and mountain biking. My favorite spot is somewhere around Breckenridge all the way over to Fruita 🙂

  8. Marylou

    Hi! I’ve been blogging for a while now and I’m about to rebrand my blog with the new year. I’m thinking about selling products like pins and some other sort of stationery (because I bloody love it!) but I was wondering, how exactly can I make money blogging? I don’t have a job and I feel like everyone else is ahead of me and I’m still here, figuring things out, living under my parents’ roof. I HATE THIS. I love writing. I’m actually writing a book, but I also love blogging and I wanted to know how exactly can I blog full time and calling it my job? Affiliates don’t work and I don’t have ebooks to sell. If I won’t give the stationery shop a go, how could I make money from just blogging? I was never given an actual, real, effective answer! Thank you!!!!

  9. Ally

    Hello love,

    You’re blog is such a valuable resource and I’m pretty sure I’ve read every single post on here…and I do have a few questions that may or may not go together….1.) On your first few income reports ever you mentioned a miscellaneous category, what did that entail? I’m starting my blog and my YouTube now, it’s happening. But I’m needing some supplemental income to keep me secure while i focus on growth and streamlining my message and focus. And so I’m having a hard time getting started with it. 2.) For email newsletters will you make a tutorial on how you do it, make them look good, send them on a schedule, what kind of schedule, etc? 3.) Tips for growing social media…or even people to look into? I’m interested in Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. 4.) In your (marvelous) opinion, can a lifestyle blog be successful given that there are currently oh oh so many? Should I choose something else? I’m really worried about limiting my growth and have so much to share I feel like it’s a good start to figure out where my services are really needed and what my future audience wants from me. 5.) Ahh, I’m sorry for all the q’s, last one. Advice for streamlining or people who have done things that started the monetization sooner? Like should I launch my blog with email newsletter+freebie and have affiliate links already in my posts and googleadsense already on my YouTube? Or it it important to build first and show your audience it’s not about the money (because it’s not, I’m just super motivated to finally embrace my inner business women).

    Thank you so so much.

    Thank you so much lovely!!!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      1) Honestly, I cannot even remember. That was years ago and I have a horrible memory. I wish I would have kept better track back then. Maybe it was from selling items?

      2) That’s a great idea!

      3) I recommend reading the Featured Question here for tips on how to improve traffic:
      https://fund-rise.live/2016/02/january-online-income-report.html%3C/a%3E. That will then it turn help with social media growth.

      4) There’s plenty of room for everyone! 🙂

      5) If you monetize correctly, then you can do it all from the very beginning.

      1. Sigleen

        What exactly do you mean with monetize correctly? Because everywhere i read they say you need this amount of trafic for google adsence, or this amount for affiliate links. So where do you start right of the bat making money?

        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          There’s a correct way to monetize and a wrong way. The wrong way would just be slapping ads and affiliate links all over without a strategy.

  10. Ed

    Hello Michelle

    I am about to giving up with blogging because I don’t see the results I think I can get, do you have a solid piece of advice you can give me to go on blogging?

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Oh no, don’t give up! The beginning is the most tough and that is why the average blogger quits within 6 months. You just have to keep pushing 🙂

  11. Rhonda Grice

    How long before your traffic started to pick up. I’m posting on Twitter and Pinterest daily. I’m using SlideShare, and writing at least two blog post a week. I use StumbleUpon, Snip.ly, and Scoop.it. But sadly My traffic will boost for a few days, then go back to where it was.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I started my blog as a hobby so I didn’t really track analytics in the beginning – I didn’t even have GA installed until around after the first year of blogging!

  12. Lily @ The Frugal Gene

    Ahhhh I wanna play!!!

    1. How did you meet your husband?
    2. How long did it take for you to know he was the one?
    3. What was making sense of cents like in the first 6 months before the world knew Michelle?
    4. Favorite ice cream flavor?

    Hoping these weren’t creepy…not my intention.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      hahahaha!

      1) In high school (we went to competing schools in the same small town). He pretended he knew me and it led to a funny conversation. We think we met each other once before, around 3rd to 4th grade.

      2) Haha, I was pretty young, but I would say I knew pretty quickly 🙂

      3) It was a complete disaster! I started my blog purely as a hobby and it was a hot mess.

      4) Huckleberry!

  13. Mary

    Hi Michelle, I have 2 questions –

    1. When you plan your blog posts around keywords? and if so, what is the best keyword research tool for a new blogger?

    2. What process do you go thru after you publish your post in order to syndicate your content?

    Thanks,
    Mary

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      1) No, I don’t plan anything around keywords.

      2) I don’t syndicate my content through anyone.

  14. Briana

    Hi Michelle,

    I think it’s wonderful that you are allowing anyone to ask anything! I came across your page via the Forbes article and have been blown away ever since. I’ve always wanted to get into blogging but never have because I’ve always felt does the world really need one more blogger? How will anyone find me? After reading the article I’ve really decided to put my concerns aside and give it a go, knowing that it would be as easy as it may seem. Long story short, you’re definitely an inspiration to me. I’m working on establishing a blog right now by identifying content and creating a road map, but I don’t have the actual website setup yet.

    My questions for you would be –

    1. What would you say drives your content selection?
    2. How influential is your content in relation to generating your income?
    3. What strategies did you take on to be found and reach the large success of over 300,000 readers?

    Thanks for the opportunity!
    Briana

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Thanks Briana!

      1) What currently interests me is what drives content selection, for the most part.

      2) 0%. I don’t think about money when it comes to creating content. I try to fit monetization in later, when I know it will be natural.

      3) You can read my exact strategies here – https://fund-rise.live/2017/04/how-to-make-money-blogging-online.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

      🙂

  15. Elizabeth

    What will be the one thing you would do to bring traffic to a blog that is not attracting much traffic

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Get on Pinterest.